Come September !!!..

It has not been the greatest of months, and thankfully its going to be over in a few hours !!.. What a relief !!.. Its been a month of travelling and more travelling. I have been away most of the month, visiting our manufacturing facility in Ankleshwar, Gujarat on a process improvement project. And while I have managed to come home during weekends, thus becoming a regular on the Mumbai - Ahmedabad Shatabdi Express (the new rakes are quite sophisticated by Indian Railways standards), the thought of being away from home and family was depressing. And not to forget the fact that daily routines are completely disrupted. I have to now re-start my workouts and my preparation for the marathon (less than five months away) has taken a couple of steps back. In addition, reading has taken a hit. With a pile of books now on my reading agenda, hopefully I will get more time to pursue one of my favourite hobbies.

There is, of course, another reason why I look forward to September. The start of the month is marked by a family dinner to celebrate Mom's birthday !!! For most of us, unfortunately, it is the only the day where we really honour the lady who has shaped our lives like no-one else. So here's wishing Many Happy Returns of the day to the most sweetest lady on the planet !!. And here's raising a toast to the month of September, in anticipation of more visits to the gym, more of catching up with friends, more of gorging on books and more of generally having good and productive days. Cheers !!!!

Swine Flu and the failing monsoons...

So there are two immediate crises facing the country today, which therefore find a lot of mention in the media and daily newspapers as well as in random conversations. While one crisis is more direct and has people worried, the other is slowly looming in the background. Of course, I am talking about the Swine Flu crisis as well the monsoons, which now seem to be well and truly deficient.

Till a few weeks back, many people, including me, used to think that swine flu was a epidemic mostly confined to those travelling to the West (Mexico) and hence common people need not worry much unless they came into contact with such persons. But the last week has shaken that belief completely. Ten deaths and counting is India's toll today. Suddenly, it seems that no one is immune. And the government seems to have been caught napping. Our honourable Health minister, fresh from his insights on how to control population growth via television, now has a growing problem on his hand. Especially with huge congregations of people expected in Mumbai and Pune in the coming Ganesh festival, one can only hope that things do not get much worse from here. Pune especially, is in danger of turning into a ghost city if all public places start to close down. As individuals of course, all we can do is to take adequate precautions.

The other crises is the monsoons, or rather the lack of it. This could have significant medium-term ramifications. In the twenty odd years that I remember of, I have never seen such a dry August in Mumbai. And currently I am in a town called Ankleshwar in Gujarat. This time last year, the place was full of muck on the (so-called) roads. This time around, the roads are completely clean and dry and the sun beats down like any other summer day. While the lack of rains is already affecting parts of Mumbai (30% or more in water cuts), the more significant implications would be reduced agricultural output, resulting in higher prices and smaller rural incomes, with potential downside for many industries. Already the stock market is nervous thinking of this possibility. If that comes anywher close to a reality, we are sure to have a wider crises staring at us.

Regards
Amit

A tale of two movies... !!

In the past month or so, I have got the opportunity of watching re-runs of two of my favorite Hindi movies. Of course, I have seen and loved them in the past. But then, there was no blog to pen down your thoughts about them. But now, one just needs to start putting (digital) pen on (artificial) paper. And the fact that the two movies are as different as chalk and cheese made it all the more imperative that I write about them. So here goes...

The first one is Yash Chopra's poetic 'Kabhi Kabhi' (1975). Actually this movie is actually a series of different stories that merge together at the end. At the start of the movie is the unforgettable sight of Raakhee reciting 'Kabhi Kabhi Mere Dil Main' on her wedding night. A poem that is symbolic of her past and of the man she loved, the poet Amit (one of the Big B's most understated performances). Then who can forget her husband ??. One of Indian cinema's most endearing characters is Vijay Khanna (Shashi Kapoor). A man that lives life kingsize and has a heart of gold. One who is unapologetically flirts with his to-be samdhan (Simi Garewal) and tries his hand at poetry ('Aap ki aankhen itni haseen hai jaise.... garib ke ghar main lantern jalta ho !!'). Then there are the love-birds in Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh, whose romance provided Yash Chopra the opportunity to capture the stunning beauty of Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh like never before. And to add further spice to the surroundings was the immortal music score by Khayyam. Whether its 'Kabhie Kabhie mere dil main khayal aata hai' or 'Main pal do pal/har ek pal ka shayaar hoon' or 'Tere chehre se nazar nahi hatati', Sahir Ludhianvi and Khayyam(along with Mukesh, Lata and Kishore's vocals) simply create magic. In my books, one of the best music scores in Hindi film history. And a must-watch movie as well !!!

If Kabhie Kabhie had sublime poetry and romantic moments in plenty, the other movie that I am talking about is almost diametrically opposite in content (though it also has decent music). Violent and hard-hitting, N Chandra told the story of the transformation of a bright and idealistic young man to a gangster, who then, by the end of the movie, expels all the acid inside of him and returns to his rightful place in society. And quite fittingly, the movie was called 'Tezaab'. The reason I liked that movie was because it somehow exuded a raw and no-holds-barred energy, that was evident in the fantastic dialogues written by Kamlesh Pandey (even Madhuri had lines that were too rough for the leading ladies of that time). Each of the characters in the movie were well etched out, whether it be Chunky Pandey (the scene of the marwari at the restaurent is still remembered), or Lotia Pathan (Kiran Kumar) or Anupam Kher or Suresh Oberoi playing the good cop. To add to that was Madhuri looking a million dollars and 'Ek Do Teen'.But the film, of course, belonged to Anil Kapoor. Right from his entry ('Tumhari zindagi aur maut ke beech ka faasla Munna ki chaaku ki dhaar se zyaada nahi hai'), Munna dominates the movie. And Tezaab still remains one of Anil Kapoor's best performances. In fact, Tezaab was one of three very good movies of the same genre but dealing with different topics within it, that released around the same time (1988-89). I have already written about Parinda in a previous post, and the third movie was JP Dutta's little-known gem 'Hathyar' (Dharmendra, Sanjay Dutt and Rishi Kapoor). Though I remember little about the movie (except Sanjay's death at the end in the toy shop surrounded by all the guns and pistols that, during his childhood, prodded him onto the road of violence), it somehow has stayed with me and I will watch it in full someday.

So that was about two very different yet very good movies in their own right !!

Cheers
Amit

Four Years on ....

Tomorrow, it will be four years to the day. But it does not seem to far back in the past. The day that brought my city to its knees. While the other tragedies that Mumbai has witnessed in the recent past have been far more heinous and barbaric (they were man-made after all), in terms of the casualties and the breadth of people that it affected, there is quite nothing to rival what happened on 26 July 2005. After all, Mumbai received the highest recorded 24-hour rainfall for a metropolitan area in human history. And I vividly recall the day....

In fact, I recall the day before that as well. I had gone out with friends to a dinner party and came back late and crashed. Following morning, I was ready to face a fresh day at work. Outside, there was the typical July shower. One which the city had faced thousands of times before. Outwardly, there was nothing to suggest that the day was going to be any different. People rushed out, caught their daily lifelines (the local trains) and went to work like any other Tuesday. The drizzle continued, slowly increasing in intensity but never ceasing. By early afternoon, as we finished our lunch and got back to work, there were the first indications that this was not the usual monsoon day. The showers refused to subside and suddenly multiplied in intensity. This went out for about a couple of hours. By around 4 pm, offices had started shutting down. We were asked to leave at 4 pm. Even then, people did not anticipate what was in store, since there are always a couple of days like that every monsoon. But as we were leaving, news of a massive traffic jam on the Western Express Highway trickled in (our office is in Santacruz East). With no foreseeable alternative, me and a colleague set out of office on foot. And before we knew it, we were in waist deep water in Vakola (to put things in perspective, when our office closed early a couple of weeks back, the water at the same spot barely covered my toes !!). The highway was a sight to behold. Cars stuck bumper-bumper, abandoned by their owners and pedestrians wading along the divider in waist deep water. As the sun went down, power went out in most areas, giving the surroundings an eerie look. The rain, of course, was relentless. In fact, about three hours later, as we reached Andheri, it was raining so hard that the rain drops started hurting. With all shops closed, it was tough to even get a pack of biscuits. Finally, after nearly five hours of walking through mostly knee-waist high water, I reached home at Goregoan (about 12 km in all). There too, it was a dark reception.

For a city that prides itself on getting back to work the day after any tragedy, Mumbai was completely shut down for two more days. In fact the power in our office was not restored even on Friday, hence we got the rest of the week off. And the tragedy affected everyone, from the rich and famous stuck in their cars (some even lost their lives) and going without power and essential foodstuffs for three days right down to the less-fortunate slum dwellers who watched helplessly as their houses, belongings and their very lives were washed away by Nature's fury. Nearly 1000 people were killed in Mumbai and other areas in Maharashtra on that fateful day. The Mithi River, till then regarded as nothing more than one of the many nallahs that wind their way through the suburbs, suddenly was the center of all attraction. Mumbai's century old drainage system, rather the inability of the authorities to suitably augment it, came in for much flak. Four years down the line, while some things have changed for the better, there is still that lurking fear, exploited to the hilt by the media, in the heart of every Mumbaikar each day the monsoon showers appear heavier than usual: what if today turns out to be another 26/7 ??. All I can answer to that is, if there is ever another 26-7 in the city, then the phrase 'lightning does not strike twice' would have proven false !!.

So what is your 26/7 story ?

~
Amit

Face the truth !!.. Indian television enters taboo territory !!

In a couple of hours from now, Star Plus airs the debut episode of its much-hyped reality show 'Sach Ka Samnaa' and with it, Indian television enters into completely virgin territory. Readers in India who regularly watch the idiot box need no introduction to the show. But for the benefit for people abroad, here's the deal in this reality show (it is the Indian version of 'Moment of Truth') :

Contestants will be asked, off-line, a set of questions. Now the questions are not GK or primary school arithmetic. These are real questions of the 'ouch' variety ("Have you ever thought of cheating on your spouse ?", "Did you ever feel jealous of your brother's/sister's success?" etc etc). The contestants will be wired to a lie detector while answering , so that their 'real' answers are recorded. Some of these contestants will then be asked the same questions on live television. And, the person who can completely bare his/her soul on live Indian TV (with their near/dear ones in the audience) and give the same answers as what is there in his/her heart wins. So the ones most likely to win are the ones either with the blandest lives or the ones with not a tinge of remorse or hesitation !!. And is there any one of us who belongs to either of this category ?? That is what the shows seems to ask us.

Already, the show has raked in controversy even before the first episode. Vinod Kambli apparently has revealed his not too friendly side with Tendulkar, causing a media storm. Of course, much of the show itself might be staged, but the thought of other people facing their inner demons on live television is an enticing one, sure to get eyeballs. It would seem that Star Plus has a winner, provided of course, it is sustained after the initial hype.

Regards
Amit

PS: I do not intend to follow the show, in case anyone was wondering :-)

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa.. !! Another season, another grand climax !!

Another season of the hugely popular Marathi musical show 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa' is coming to an end with the grand finale scheduled for next Sunday (12th July). I had written about the same show in its last season (read here), in which the hunt was on for the voice of the future. This time around, the focus is on the present. For those who, for various reasons, are not able to follow this season, this season has seen ten of the brightest professional singers take center stage with two stalwarts namely Pandit Hridayanath Mangeshkar and Suresh Wadkar judging them. And with ten talents to start off with, we are now down to the last three, who will fight it out (doesn't it seem to harsh a word to use for a singing competition ?) for the right to be called 'Maharashtra cha aaj cha awaaz' (Today's voice of Maharashtra). And the final three are Madhura Datar, Amruta Natu and Hrishikesh Ranade. My previous favourite, Vibhavaari Apte, was the last to get eliminated last week. But all three of the finalists do pack a serious punch. Check out some of their performances on You Tube (search for 'srgmp aa') . Especially do check out Madhura Dataar (who seems to hold a slight edge) in 'Mi Radhika Mi Premika'. While the last season was made memorable by the young prodigies, this time it is nothing but raw talent that has viewers glued to their televisions every Monday and Tuesday evening. And as the show approaches its finale, one can again hope that the best person finally emerges as the voice of Maharashtra. All the best to all the three !!!..

Cheers
Amit

Raigad: In the Chhatrapati's Kingdom - Part Two

After a good afternoon's rest followed by refreshing cup of tea (machine tea I might add, since there is no kitchen at the top - everything is bought from the foothills), we set out to further explore the fort. After about an hour of revisiting the 'Balle Killa' and the market place, we rested for a while to catch the sunset. And it was one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. The pictures,of course, speak for themselves. By this time, the clouds in the sky had cleared, but the clouds below had not, giving rise to a fabulous sunset in which the sun setting over the hills was actually above the clouds in the valleys below. Not many places where you would see such a sight. Totally transfixed, we simply kept clicking, not wanting to let go the opportunity of preserving the moment for posterity. Once the sun went down, it was time to beat a hasty retreat back to the rooms since there are no lights inside the fort. So once it gets dark, it can be quite scary even with a torchlight (not to add the frequent steps where one can easily trip). We, of course, were back in our rooms in time. A typical 'thali' dinner followed (served quite early at around eight). After that was a 'gup-shup' and a card session that went way past midnight. After that, we resolved to go back to the fort in the pitch of darkness with nothing but a small torch. After going up about a dozen steps, we looked back to take a picture of the resort amidst the darkness, with the clouds still giving us company. We sat their for a few minutes. Unfortunately, the clouds deprived us of a chance to do some star-gazing, so we returned to the rooms to hit the sack.

The morning was clear as we woke up just before and set out for the Shivaji samadhi and the temple adjoining it. As if to show us the way, the sun rose almost exactly behind the samadhi itself. Reaching the samadhi made one's heart swell with pride and emotion. To offer homage at the place honouring the great warrior was a moving experience. Besides the Chhatrapati's samadhi was the memorial of his favourite dog. The last major point to visit was the Takmak Tok. Set apart from the other attractions on the fort, the Takmak Tok was used to throw off serial offenders during Shivaji's reign. Once I reached the place, I understood why. The steel fencing on both sides offered some comfort. But take them out of the equation and it is a scary affair. At the furthest point, the 'tok' (edge) is barely a couple of feet wide with deep ravines on both sides. Reaching there without the comfort of fences would have taken some courage three centuries ago.

After a breakfast of 'Pohe', it was time to leave the fort with fond memories. The return trip had a detour to the village of Pachad near the foothills, where the samadhi of Shivaji's mother, Jijabai stands. The trip to Raigad, apart from offering a much-needed respite from the daily routine, was also a throwback to the great history and legacy of my state. !!

Cheers
Amit

PS: Dear Reader.... This marks the 100th post on my blog !!!.. With your continued patronage, hope to score several centuries more !!.. Thanks a lot ;-)

Raigad: In the Chhatrapati's Kingdom - Part One

There are some places that you visit just to get away from your daily drudgery. Such places may not have the best sights in the world, but that is never the point. With nothing really particular to visit, all you plan to do is relax, take a stroll and generally take whatever comes your way. On the other hand, there are some places that you visit with a pre-determined purpose. Such places have a particular magnetic attraction and an aura that invites thousands from near and far. For me, and most people in Maharashtra, the fort of Raigad is one such place. The capital of our state’s favourite son, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, has long held a fascination for me and last weekend, I finally managed, along with my B-school group, to reach the fort, which is literally the heart of Maratha pride.


Saturday early morning saw us (Anjali and me) jumping in the hired car and, picking others along the way, off we went on NH-17 towards Raigad. With the monsoons especially playing truant this year, we all were sceptical of the weather we would get there. Nothing we saw on our way there really gave us any relief. It continued to alternate between sunny and partly cloudy, with not a drop of rain in sight. And we could see many fields, all ploughed and sowed, ready for the showers. We were praying for the rains to give us relief, they were praying for their livelihood !!. We reached the foothills of Raigad by around noon, after a five hour drive. There we went to the base station of the famous Raigad Ropeway for a quick ride to the top. One tribute to Raigad’s prowess as a fort (it is sometimes called ‘Gibraltar of the East’) is that there is still no motorable road to the top. And before the ropeway started, the only way to reach the top was to walk the 1500 odd steps, as in olden days. Two of our group members did take that route, whereas the rest of us took the easy way out and were at the top within five minutes. Contrary to what I had read beforehand, the ropeway ride was a smooth one (though thankfully there was no wind at that time). And by around 12.30, we had reached the back door entrance of the fort.

The operators of the Raigad ropeway have accommodation facilities (strictly functional, I might add) besides the ropeway station. Hence, we checked in, freshened up and went off to explore the fort. And it is a big fort to explore!! It was certainly one of the biggest forts that I had visited (a walk from one end to the other is a good couple of km). And literally, each square foot of the fort smelt of history. The ‘Balle Killa’ (Main Fort) had the main ‘darbar’ with the Chhatrapati’s throne at the head (with his statue still proudly holding court). One could easily visualize a court session in progress, with the ministers deliberating over matters of strategic and social importance along with Maharaj himself. Behind the darbar were Shivaji’s main chambers and behind that, the chambers for the queens. Walking further ahead from the darbar, we saw the main market place of the fort. The market place consisted of a wide walkway in the middle flanked by shops on both sides. Again, the scene of a typical market day with traders (who all used to endure the three hour climb of the staircase everyday)* selling their stuff to the fort occupants arose vividly in my mind. At around this time, the weather started changing for the better !! Grey clouds started building up, the wind picked up and the approaching rain could be smelt. We stopped by at one of the few huts on the fort for a quick meal of traditional ‘zunka-bhakar’ prepared by the locals. This again was different experience for us. Sitting in that dark hut (no electricity at the top except for the two ‘resorts’), with eyes watering because of the smoke of the ‘chulha’, we had a satisfying lunch. And as we left their hut to return to our rooms, the rains hit us, with the clouds in tow. And within a few minutes, the entire scenery was transformed. The market place suddenly seemed a different place with visibility reduced to not more than 15-20m (see pic). The rains had finally come to our rescue !!!. Enjoying ourselves in the drizzle and feeling on top of the world, we returned for a good late afternoon rest.

- More to follow….

Cheers
Amit

* Regarding the traders, the most famous story is that of Hirkani, a lady living at the foothills of the fort who used to come to the top everyday to sell milk. One day, she was late in finishing off in the evening and consequently, when she reached the gates of the fort in order to go back to her place, she found that the gates had closed for the day. With her infant waiting in her village at the foothills, she scaled the fort walls and then literally descended a steep cliff and got back to her village. Shivaji Maharaj named the cliff ‘Hirkani Buruj’ in her honour and looking at that, the mind boggles as to how she could have even attempted it.

Random thoughts on today's headlines !!

With my blog being dormant for nearly three weeks now, and with nothing really particular to write about, I figured out the best way to keep the writing habit alive is to comment on some of the day's headlines. Not only is this a good way to ensure that newspapers are read (I subscribe to four different ones - including two business dailies - and hardly read anything), but it also a good way to develop your writing skills, especially for first-time bloggers. So on a lazy Sunday morning, I finally got down to reading today's DNA and found some really interesting articles, some of which I thought of commenting on (after all, dont we all have an opinion on everything ?).

Mirch Masala in Australia: This, of course, was the front page headlines and talked about how Indians down under are arming themselves with chilli powder and pepper spray to fight off potential attackers (taking a cue from Ketan Mehta's movie in the 80s). I really think this is getting uglier and scarier by the day. A few days more of this senseless violence and we would have a full fledged diplomatic row between the two nations, spilling over to all fields. Already, some bars in Mumbai have stopped selling Fosters beer and more are expected to follow suit !!! And while the Australian cricket team's tour to India is some months away (October), if this continues, their team can expect more than a hostile reception here. The other thing, of course, is that an eye-for-an-eye policy rarely brings with it any positive results. So here's hoping that all this hostility on both sides quickly becomes a thing of the past, else we might have to see full-blown clashes on the streets of Melbourne and Sydney.

Black Leopard spotted after 67 years: This was the headline that really cheered me up. To think that a species of leopard, hitherto thought of to be nearly extinct, can be seen after so many years in the Sahyadris is quite heartening. Just goes to show that there are still tracts of forest here in India that can still harbour big animals like this without the outside world seeing them for so long. This, in itself, is fantastic.

Call of the Sahyadris: With the monsoons round the corner (and hope they finally arrive this week), the Sahyadris is the place to go. With a myriad of forts dotting the landscape, the onset of monsoons signals the start of the trekking season. Especially during the first few rains, when the ground is still not soft enough to be dangerous for trekking, there are plenty of opportunities for avid trekkers to enjoy nature at its best. This year, I hope to have a few weekend outings there, starting with a visit to Raigad coming weekend.

Want your area cleaned ? You can make it happen !!. This is another novel idea to improve our local governance. Once this act is passed, each polling booth will have an Area Sabha with the councillor as the chairman. All registered voters would be members of this Sabha. This Sabha would have the right to suggest priority of schemes and development programmes to be implemented in the area. The only question is, who is going to listen and take appropriate action ??. Also, as with most good intentions, the success of this idea lies in its execution. For example, in any case only half (or even less) of the registered voters actually vote. So how many of them will voluntarily turn up to be members of this Sabha and, more importantly, participate in it regularly. I do not mean to sound pessimistic, but I do sincerely wish this idea a lot of success, since it is neccessary to give more teeth to the lowest level of the government that most directly interacts with the general public.

So these were some random comments of today's headlines !! Hope to make this a regular feature henceforth...

Cheers
Amit

Even the mightiest fall !!!!!!!!!

Today, I heard those lines again. And as always, they bought a lump to my throat. Forget even hearing, even when I hum those lines in my mind, they touch somewhere deep down. But today, I also read a complete translation of those lines. And in the midst of reading it, the view of the screen got blurred… So here is my tribute to probably my favourite poem of all time.

The opening lines go like this:

“hue naam warr benishan kaise kaise
zameen kha gayi naujawan kaise kaise

aaj jawani par itaranae wale kal pacthtayega - 2
chadhta suraj dheere dheere dhalta hain dhal jayega - 2
dhal jayega dhal jayega”

“(See) how the famous have now lost their signatures
The earth has eaten up quite a few heroes..
So (you) who today prides himself on his youth, will regret it tomorrow..
The rising sun will eventually set”

At this point, readers who have listened to this qawaali need not read further. Since having once listened carefully to this masterpiece in shayaari that is so depressing yet so very true, no one will ever forget it. But for those who have never heard of it, I will just sample a few verses, though listening to the entire eleven-minute narration will drive home (very badly, I might add) the point. Of course, a slight understanding of Urdu would definitely aid.

So here are some other gems from ‘Chadta Suraj Dheere Dheere Dhalta Hai, Dhal Jaayega’ (pardon my inaccurate translation in some cases)

“maut ne zamane ko yeh sama dikh dala
kaise kaise us gum ko khak main mila dala
khak main mila dala khak main mila dala
yaad rakh sikander ke hausle to aali they
jab gaya tha duniya se dono haath khali they
dono haath khali they dono haath khali they
apna woh halaku hain aur na uske saathi hain
jung ko chu woh porus hain aur na uske haathi hain
aur na uske haathi hain aur na uske haathi hain
kal jo tanke chalte they apni shano shaukat par
shamma tak nahi jalti aaj unki purbat par”

“(See) what seasons has death shown the world
(See) how it has reduced the once mighty to dust
Remember that Alexander was the greatest
But he was empty-handed when he left the world
Neither was his strong army around nor were his comrades
And neither did he leave with his enemy (Porus) or his elephants
(The person) who till yesterday was proud of his fame and power
Today not even a candle burns on his grave’

And sample another one…

“maut sabko aani hain kaun isse chuta hain
tu fana nahi hoga yeh khayal jhutha hain
yeh khayal jhutha hain yeh khayal jhutha hain
saans tutate hi sab rishtey tut jaayenge
baap, maa, behan, biwi, Bachhe choot jayenge
bachhe choot jayenge Bachhe choot jayenge
tere jitne hain bhai waqt ka chalan denge
chin kar teri daulat do hi gaj kafan denge
do hi gaj kafan denge do hi gaj kafan denge”

“Death has come to all, no one has escaped
That you will not be destroyed
Is but a delusionary thought
The moment you take your last breath, all relationships would snap
Father, Mother, Sister, Wife and Children, you would leave all behind
Your so called ‘brothers’ will quietly bid their time
And then (after your death) steal your wealth
And leave only two yards of grave for you”

Of course there are several other such profound lines in this qawaali, so go ahead and listen. If you cannot find it, you can always mail me at amitg13@gmail.com, will send the MP3 version.


Cheers
Amit

PS: Thanks for Amitabh Iyer's blog for a good attempt at translating this..

Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh !!!...

Dear Hon. Prime Minister

 

I write to you on a day that is perhaps the most significant days in recent Indian history. Over the past month, the people of India have, after nearly two decades, voted almost decisively for a pre-poll alliance. (In fact, I read on one television channel that this is the most decisive result since your party was thrown out in 1977!!). As a result, today you find yourself having an almost obstacle-free path to the PM’s seat. And I for one am pleasantly surprised. Yesterday, I wrote on my blog, fearing for the kind of games our politicians would be playing in order to get to that 272 mark. Thankfully, the nation would not be seeing those now and your party along with its allies (plus some minor support here and there) should be able to comfortably occupy the treasury benches in the Lok Sabha. Here I also admit that you are not one of my favourite leaders (though I have the highest respect for you from amongst your breed). But anyways, what I feel matters the least today.

But I am not writing just to congratulate you, your party and allies for winning the election. I am sure that you realize the enormity of the task ahead of you. By decisively giving you a mandate, the billion strong population of this country has placed the highest expectations from you. And I am no different. Your future government is already being called the first real Congress government since 1989. Meaning that you have now virtually a free hand in running the government, at least the finances. To add to that, the presence of a former finance minister at the helm will further raise hopes. One hopes that without the interference of the Left and other allies, your government would be able to carry out its financial agenda and tackle the real issues head-on. Of course, I am hardly qualified to inform you on the real issues that face us, but I cannot resist !!. Security of course has become numero uno for some time now and I hope your government is able to provide reassurance to its citizens that visits to shopping malls and travelling in local trains need not be accompanied by doubts on whether one would return home safely. On the finances front, its now time to reverse all those populist policies that have caused a nearly 10% fiscal deficit last year. With the Left and the others becoming less relevant, I sincerely hope that subsidies are reduced to the extent that people pay a fair price for the petrol they use and the power they consume. Then there is the question of bills in crucial areas like insurance, retail, women representation etc. that were stuck up because of political opposition within the former government. One last area that I would like to mention is agriculture. It is about time that Indian agriculture is made into an investment-worthy sector, so that one day people from the cities would look to the villages to invest, directly or indirectly, in agriculture. And while I do not expect your government to deliver overnight, you now have five solid years to deliver good, decisive and growth-oriented governance. The budget due next month would definitely be your first chance to make your intentions clear. The country would await that.

To sum up, today’s verdict has given birth to a new wave of optimism throughout the country, atleast amongst the urban sector. (CNBC is already predicting a circuit breaking rally on Monday !!). How much of that optimism is misplaced will only be clear in the following weeks. But it is now time to assert yourself (and I was pleasantly surprised to see you during the campaign, where you were unusually blunt, especially while reacting to LK Advani’s remarks). Now is the time to carry that decisiveness to the PM’s chair. Freed of the shackles of coalition governance, the years 2009 to 2014 have the potential to go down in history as the period in which India started its march from a developing nation encumbered by populist policies and underperforming governments to being one of the economic powerhouses of the world. And my generation, nearing or crossed thirty, eagerly look forward to these five years.

I sincerely hope that your government meets the expectations that the common people right from Mumbai to Manipur and from Srinagar to Sivakasi now have from you. All the very best !!!!!

 

Yours truly,

A common Indian citizen

Let the games begin !!!!!

Tomorrow dawns the big day finally !! When the bigger IPL (Indian Political League) is played out, captured live by the many news channels catering to the millions who would be practically glued to their television screens (I know I would be) since morning. And by all indications, this IPL is certain to match yesterday's IPL (the bat-ball variety) match for sheer drama and intrigue. With neither of the main alliances coming anywhere close to the magic 272 mark, it looks pretty certain that the formation of the next government could take a few days more. And in that interim, one has no doubt that all sorts of games (the good, the bad and the downright ugly) would be played. Suddenly, ideologies would take a backseat (if they haven't already), political pariahs would be sought after and each elected independent would be worth his or her weight in gold (and I daresay, might also be paid so !!). In all this maneuvering, the thoughts that would be the furthest in the minds of the netas and mantris would be on how to best serve their constituencies, whether in power or in the opposition !! So people like you and me who have cast their votes to bring these men and women to power would ultimately be at the receiving end of another five years of ordinary governance. 

So all eyes focussed on tomorrow morning when the grand finale of the world's largest democratic exercise takes place !! As for people like us, we can only pray that whoever stumbles across the finish line tomorrow would have a stable government to start with, since that atleast would enable it to take some strong decisions without having to worry about someone pulling the rug from under their feet. As they say, 'sar salaamat to pagdi hazaar' !!

And finally, hats off to those lakhs of returning officers and polling officials who have made such a mammoth exercise possible !!

Cheers

Amit

'2 minute' karte karte 25 saal !!!!!

Urban India's favourite snack is turning 25 !!!! And Nestle, rightly so, is celebrating it by inviting people from all over to write in their memorable Maggi moments.. see here. Looking back now, a childhood with Maggi seems almost unimaginable. Right from the time I used to come back from school and get treated to a bowl of piping hot Maggi Chicken by Mom to today, when my wife still serves up Maggi Masala in a jiffy for breakfast, Maggi has always been part of my, and indeed, all our lives. And all of us have our memorable Maggi moments. For me, the one I remember most was during my B-school stint, where Maggi was the hot favourite at the night canteen. Well past midnight, when the world was asleep, the hostels were buzzing with activity, and very few were as active as the guy at the night canteen. With an almost un-ending demand from the hungry night owls to contend with (till about 2 am), he used to simply process a batch of a dozen packs a time in a big vessel and around it would gather the students, eagerly waiting to lay their hands on those beloved strands of yellow flour. Just went to show how universally liked Maggi was, and still is. 

So whats your favourite Maggi Moment ???

Cheers

Amit

Post script to my previous post..

In my previous post, I had made the point that as a community, we Maharashtrians need to be more inwardly looking in order to address the shortcomings within us. Especially in the area of enterpreunership and running business, there is a lot that we need to learn. Two incidents regarding this which I myself have observed:

a. On more than one Saturday morning, I have got out of home trying to find a good Maharasthrian breakfast (Misal Pao, Pohe, Khichdi etc). Now there are three decent eateries serving the above-mentioned items (and more) within walking distance from my place. However, much to my dissapointment, I have discovered that these eateries do not open before 9 am, whereas the idli-wallahs and vada-pao stalls are out in force before 8 am !!!!. Surely, 8 am is not too early a time to expect people to have their breakfast at !!

b. Last Saturday, I encountered a unique incident. I had gone to a famous Maharashtrian restaurent in Girguam along with my wife. The restaurent had recently opened an AC section (presumably to attract more non-Marathi customers, since most of us would think twice before going to an AC restaurent, but that is a different point !!!). So attached to that AC section was the rest room, with tastefully designed wash basins and three toilets. However when I went to use the rest-room, I found out that the toilets were locked !!. On inquiring with the waiter, I could not believe my ears when he said that there was a common key to those toilets that had been misplaced !!!!. I simply could not comprehend why anyone would like to : a) Keep a loo under lock and key and b) have a single key for all. And if this story was indeed true, then god alone knows for how many days the toilets were lying unused while customers had to look to someplace to lessen their misery. And if this was a made up story, it is even sadder for it showed that the management was not keen on customers using those places. So why were they built anyways ???. Needless to mention, I left the place not wanting to return (even though the food itself was great) simply because of the complete lack of customer sensitivity on view. And I could not help myself wondering that such a thing could have been made possible only at a Maharashtrian owned business !!!. I hope so much that I am wrong !!!..

Regards

Amit

Marathi pride awakened ??? Not quite..

The plot could hardly have been better.

- A community that has long felt marginalized and has been reduced to a minority in the capital of its own state.
- A community that has seen the winds of progress blow past it, while it has been busy leading a typical life: working in a bank as a clerk, earning enough to enable the family to survive, bringing up their children with all the right values, investing whatever little savings they have in good old fixed deposits and pension funds and then finally retiring peacefully.
- A community that harbours more than a grudge against the so-called ‘outsiders’ perceived to have taken over their city and livelihood but fails to realize that somewhere most of the blame lies inside
- A community that prides itself on its simplicity and loyalty but has somehow not really translated that into success and prosperity

So who better to awaken this community from its deep slumber than the person whom they regard as closest to God? A warrior, who by his exploits more than three centuries ago, still holds complete sway over the heart and mind of every member of that community ? In trying to bring this plot to life, ‘Mi Shivaji Raje Boltoy’ had everything going for it. However, to put it in a nutshell, while the movie does raise some valid questions, it does not go the full distance. And I, as a proud member of the above-mentioned community, confess to being more than disappointed.

Dinkar Bhosale epitomizes the middle-class Maharashtra community in modern Mumbai. He is a common man with not so uncommon problems in life. His ancestral bungalow in the heart of Mumbai has caught the eye of a builder who, of course, is willing to go to any lengths to get it. His nagging wife never ceases to remind him of their dull existence. His son resents him for neither having the will nor the resources to pay the donation required to get him into an engineering college. And his daughter is willing to get her ‘down-market’ surname changed so that she can be ‘accepted’ into Bollywood and fulfil her acting ambitions. And for Mr. Bhosale, his daily life is confined to dutifully going to his bank each day, longingly staring at the shirt in an upmarket store which he likes but cannot afford, bringing the same ordinary fish for dinner rather than the prized ‘paaplet’ and finally listening to his family members ranting about how insignificant their lives are. After one particularly rough night at the bar, Dinkar comes home bruised and beaten and longs for inspiration to rescue him from this non-consequential existence. And inspiration finally comes in the form of his namesake and Maharashtra’s demi-god, Chhatrapati Shivaji Raje Bhosale.

At this juncture comes the movie’s high-point. Dinkar is transported into the Chhatrapati’s darbar atop Pratapgad fort. And the Chhatrapati gives him an earful about how he himself is to blame for his ordinary life. There the king (and through it, the director) makes the right noises. One particularly hard truth is the fact that most Maharashtrian restaurants and sweet-shops take pride in announcing ‘Aamchi kuthe hi shakha nahi’ (‘We have no other branch’) where in fact, they should be looking at expanding their business and generating income. Having made these, and other, painful truths clear to the audience, one was hoping that the remainder of the movie could been utilized for sending a powerful and hard-hitting message to the Maharashtrians as to how their own lack of ambition is partly responsible for the state they find themselves in, and further forcing them to introspect and possibly revive the ‘Marathi asmita (pride}’ within them (albeit in a constructive way !!).

Sadly, the remainder of the movie does not have anything specific to Marathi or the Maharashtrian community. It details how Dinkar (taking inspiration from the deeds of the Chhatrapati) transforms himself to a social crusader, fighting the powerful builder-politician-goon lobby and of course, his own internal demons. The common-man-fighting-the-system plot has already been revisited again and again by Bollywood. Hence, to that extent, the post-interval movie does not have anything significant to offer. Both the Bhosales are reduced to just any other names. And that, to me, is the movie’s biggest letdown. The first half of the movie has a strong Marathi connection which is simply let go of in the crucial second half. I have a sneaking suspicion that the makers might have been unnerved by the strong political and social reactions that an out-out ‘Marathi awakening’ movie would have generated and hence opted for a typical common man v/s system saga with only the principal characters being Maharashtrians. Whatever be the reason, it finally diluted the impact of what could have been a great path-breaking movie into just another good movie. As for the performances, Sachin Khedekar is excellent as the protagonist, conveying both the pathos of the middle-class weakling as well as the steel of the born-again Dinkar in the second half, with equal ease. However, Mahesh Manjrekar does not quite look the part of the Chhatrapati. For one, the get up makes him look too old. A younger Chhatrapati might probably have looked better (remember that he was only 53 when he died). And it also reinforces the notion that known actors do not make good historical characters since the audience ends up looking at the actor rather than the character.

To sum up, ‘Mi Shivaji Raje Boltoy’ is worth a watch if you enter the movie hall with lesser expectations. And if you can leave the hall with a desire to awaken the Marathi manoos in you, it will be worth the experience.

Regards
Amit

Wall Street in the 80s: unplugged and unravelled !!!

Wall Street in the 1980s was, by all accounts, on hell of a place to be in, provided you were at the right place at the right time !!.. Commonly reffered to as the 'decade of greed' , this was the heyday of new and esoteric financial wizardry (or 'conning' depending on where you stood) that seemed to engulf the American financial system. The "glory times" of the 80s have been portrayed in several forms of media, notably amongst them the 1987 movie 'Wall Street' starring Micheal Douglas and Charlie Sheen ("Greed, for want of a better word, is good") and in several books including 'The Bonfires of the Vanities' and Micheal Lewis's brilliant semi-autobiographical story ("Liars Poker") of his days as a bond salesman in Saloman Brothers ("Never before in the history of humanity have so many people become so rich with so little"). One amongst the several phenomenon that came into prominence was that of the leveraged buy-outs (LBO), wherein a group of investors take over a company using large amounts of borrowed money (hence leveraged buy outs). The second half of the decade saw numerous such deals, none of which was bigger or attracted more attention than the late 1988 takeover of RJR Nabisco. And the fascinating battle for control of RJR Nabisco has been chronicled in the all-time classic book 'Barbarians at the Gate', which I have just finished reading the second time (the first one was during my B-school days).

Written by then Wall Street reporters John Helyar and Bryan Burroughs, 'Barbarians at the Gate' has been widely regarded as one of the best business books ever. And few real-life events in the business world have been depicted so throughouly and thrillingly. However, along with the drame involved in the takeover battle, the authors also give us a glimpse into the mind of Wall Street in those days, where a number of so-called 'investment bankers', brokerages and lawyers made millions of dollars as fees advising Corporate America on everything including take-overs and LBOs. Also, it focusses on the king-size egos that the leading players in the drama had, none more evident that when the warring factions (the management team, Shearson Lehmann Hutton and Saloman Brothers on one side and Kohlberg Kravis and Drexel Burnham on the other) were close to joining forces, an otherwise minor detail on who should run the junk bond offering required to finance the deal resulted in a collapse of talks and resuming of hostilities. And as the hostilities increased, the bid value zoomed from $ 75 a share to almost $ 110, making it the costliest takeover of a company in American history (at $ 25 billion). All this and much more has been put to paper in a most engaging yet simple way, so that one need not be a finance graudate to understand the technicalities of the goings-on.

'Barbarians at the Gate' is one book that no one should miss !!..

Regards

Amit

Jaane Bhi do, a movie like this will never come again !!!!...

Very occasionally does it happen that some of the finest talents in any particular field (let alone film-making) come together to pitch in their collective expertise and create a product. Usually, such a collaboration leads to an outcome that falls way short of the sky-high expectations from it. However, in the rarest of rare cases, the outcome is nothing short of spectacular and becomes close to immortal. In 1983, a fresh batch of out-going students from the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) got together, persuaded their alma mater to fund a movie on a less than shoe-string budget and came out with a movie that is universally regarded to be one of the finest ever to grace Indian cinema.

Surely, the names that came together to create that cult classic called 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron' is staggering. A bunch of remarkable actors (Naseer, Ravi Baswani, Bhakti Barve, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapoor, Satish Shah et al ) and equally adept technicians (Kundan Shah, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Binod Pradhan, Sudhir Mishra and Renu Saluja to name a few) blended beautifully to carve out a masterpiece of a movie (am sure it will appear on any movie buffs top 10 movies of all times). And if ever can one movie define a whole genre, then surely JBDY epitomizes the black comedy genre. In fact, making subtle comedies (as opposed to the usual slapstick fare) is such a risky business than there have less than a handful of such movies that Bollywood has made !! . Which makes you marvel even more at the subtle references throughout the film to social life and the corruption therein. For me, the greatest beauty of JBDY is that while you are bursting at the seams with laughter one moment, the next scene immediately drives home the pathos associated with living life as a common man amidst a web of deceit and corruption. For example, sample this: the climax of the movie, as everyone knows, is that classic 'Draupadi-Vastraharan' scene from the Mahabharat (kudos to Kundan Shah and Sudhir Mishra for this gem of an idea and for its execution that led to a scene that is unparalleled in movie annals). Now this scene of course, gets you ROTFL (to use the SMS lingo ;-). But after that climax is the final scene when the two protagonists are shown walking on the streets of Mumbai dressed as prisoners with 'Hum Honge Kaamyaab' in the background !! . That scene causes a lump-in-the-throat moment, reminding the viewer that finally it is the common man who always ends up on the losing side while everyone else goes scot-free (in fact, kudos again to Kundan and Sudhir for ending the movie this way instead of the run-of-the-mill ending in which the conspirators go to jail and the protagonists become heroes).

The other endearing aspect of JBDY is the liberal references to real-life characters (Bhakti Barve's character named and modelled on Shobhaa De) and incidents (the flyover collapse in the movie mirrored the collapse of the Byculla flyover in the 80s). These make it easier for everyone to identify with the movie. Also the subtleties in the movie are impossible to ignore, for e.g. the corrupt builder bribing the BMC commissioner while high up on the pickup crane and looking down on the slums of the city, the dog peeing on the street in the opening scene illustrating the plight of the common man etc etc. The power of the screenplay along with the performances make Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron a must-see for generations to come !!.


Cheers
Amit

** ROTFL: Rolling on the floor in laughter

India Shining Again ?????

Recieved an SMS some time back from none other than the BJP !!! Yes, this is the new-age communication channel wherein political parties (though only the BJP so far has latched on it) reach out to their voters through the cellphone. Anyways, the SMS informed the voter that LK Advani had unveiled 'BJP's grand IT vision for transforming India !!'. And what does it entail ?

- Rs 10K laptop to over 1 crore students
- Internet-enabled education in every school
- E-Banking for every Indian
- 1.2 crore new IT-enabled jobs in rural areas alone

Now these are some numbers !!! And using IT, the BJP is all set to transform India (if it comes to power that is). Forget even how they are going to set about achieving this grandiose vision, one can legitimately ask where this is indeed the solution to the problems that plague the country ??

- Does giving Rs 10K laptop to over 1 crore students really help when a sizable proportion of them have to drop out of school because either their fathers have committed suicide or they are sucked into the family occupation to support a growing family ?

- Of what use is Internet-enabled education in every school when we cannot even find enough teachers to teach at those schools (not because we lack quality teachers but because teaching itself has been made into a singularly unattractive career option)

- How can a person who has not even completed basic schooling ever get on the Internet banking website and enter his account number and password ??

But it seems nobody in our political class has thought of this. Of course, you will turn around and say that this is all pre-election mumbo-jumbo and come June, everything will be forgotten. But then if this is so, I cannot comprehend whom the BJP is trying to win over by these announcements. Surely not the educated urban elite, who do not get to benefit by this and who, of course, can see through them anyways !!. Or is it India's 60 odd crore rural population, whom this vision promises to transform ? But then, I can hazard a guess that a school-going child in any of the thousands of villages across India will be more relieved to find a good teacher waiting for him/her in school rather than a laptop and broadband connection !! And a farmer would also be happier to get credit with reasonable terms from his neighbourhood bank rather than an Internet banking kit.

Hope the BJP realizes this or this might end up as another 'India Shining' campaign that cost them so much last time around.

Cheers
Amit

Jai Ho, India !!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has been a remarkable week. Possibly each day of the week has bought, atleast for me, an event or a piece of news that in itself is significant enough for this country. And to use the flavour of the season, and the so-called 'anthem of the world' (as per NDTV yesterday), one can only say 'Jai Ho, India !!!!!'. Or you can call it the 'Jai Ho Bulletin' !!!...:)

Monday, Feb 23: Thousands of Indians awoke, switched on their TV sets (atleast the lucky ones like me who had a holiday on account of Mahashivratri) , tuned into Star Movies (which otherwise hardly 5% of u ever watch) and watched with bated breath the 'coming-of-age' of Indian cinema on the world stage. And when our very own Mozart from Madras won not one but two golden statuttes (and very deservingly so), the Indian media and the country celebrated in their own inimitable style. And the success of Slumdog Millionare was also celebrated in no less measure. In fact, I am surprised that no one in the government has thought of conferring the Bharat Ratna on Danny Boyle for 'successfully bringing the real India on to the world stage' !!. But atleast for AR Rahman, this was truly a 'Jai Ho India !!!' moment.

Tuesday, Feb 24: In another stimulus package, the UPA govt reduced the excise duty and service tax by 2% each. The media made it appear as if most things in the world were going to be cheaper (as if a 2% reduction in my mobile bill seems much). While this in itself is not objectionable, what went unnoticed is that the total fiscal deficit (centre+state) has now touched a disastrous 10% of the GDP. No wonder that the country was downgraded (in a credit rating sense) to a level just above junk !! Which now means that Indian companies will have to bear even higher interest costs for overseas loans. And while I am no financial expert, I can only say 'Jai Ho, India !!!' to the profligate spending policies of the government that has bought us this far.

Wednesday, Feb 25: Watched an NDTV report saying that the preparation for the Commonwealth Games 2010 in New Delhi are way behind schedule and at this rate, there is a very serious possibility that we would not be capable of holding the games at all. Now imagine if that happens. I shudder to even think of the thought. A country that bid and won the right to host the games, had more than 4 years to get the facilities in order but still could not deliver. That will some national embarrasement which, ironically, a completely new establishment would have to face !!!!. I can imagine the Royal Queen (head of the Commonwealth) saying 'Jaeee Hoo.. India !!'.

Thursday, Feb 26: Exactly three months since the day the country witnessed its most audacious and deadly terrorist strikes, the chargesheet for the same was finally filed. Now all eyes would be on the trial itself and how swiftly our famous judicial machine can get around to announcing a verdict and, more importantly, how quickly the verdict would be executed. Preliminary estimates say the whole process can take about 6-8 months (if this seems long, consider that the 93 Mumbai blasts case took more than 12 years to reach a conclusion). So if we can see everything done and dusted by the end of this year, it will be some kind of improvement and maybe some of us can say 'Jai Ho, India !!!'.

Friday, Feb 27: This is a personal incident and possibly the most important in my eyes. As I was going to work in the morning, the train stopped for its regular halt at Vile Parle station. In about half a minute, I saw five people spitting across the tracks. While I was walking from Santacruz station to my office (about a 15 minute walk), I saw another six people spitting on the road as if it was their own big bathroom (oh sorry, they must be keeping their bathrooms spotlessly clean !!). And atleast one of those was dressed in a crisp shirt and matching trousers, probably having a white-collar job. So if anyone is under the impression that lack of civic sense is synonymous with poverty and illiteracy, think again !!. I was so disgusted at the time, and when I saw a billboard announcing Rahman's achievement, the thought of writing this post occured to me. To the lack of civic sense in my fellow countrymen, I can only sadly say.. 'Jai Ho, India !!'....

- Amit

PS: Talking of 'Jai Ho'.. I have just finishing downloading the movie that first made those two words famous. Remember that immortal final sequence of the Mahabharat ???... 'Jai Ho, Jai Ho, aisi sati ki Jai Ho !!!'.. yes, it was that unforgettable cult movie 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron !'.. more about that movie, in my next post !!..

PARINDA: Reliving a classic !!!!

In every genre of movies, there are some that stand the test of time. In fact, there are some that are ahead of their times, thus growing on their audience as the years roll by. The underworld has always been one of Bollywood's favourite themes. In keeping with the truism that movies are a mirror of social life, the 'gangster-n-underworld' movie genre rose into prominence in the 1980s, about the same time when the word 'underworld' itself became part of Mumbai life (movies like 'Mujhe Jeene Do', 'Zanjeer', 'Dharmaatma' etc before that were either 'daaku'-movies or Godfather wannabes). Once the genre started growing in popularity, there followed a flood of movies depicting the goings-on in the underworld. But one of the first such movies made remains an all-time classic. In late 1989 came Vidhu Vinod Chopra and his brilliant take on life in the underworld.

About two decades on, Parinda remains a classic not just of its genre, but in the annals of the Hindi movie industry itself. And for people of my age, who first saw it while at school (never mind the A certificate then ;-), seeing it again invokes more than a standing applause for Chopra and his team. At our age now, we are able to better appreciate the finer nuances in the movie which would have escaped us before. Of course, I hardly need reiterate the storyline !!. But what stands out about the movie is its technical brilliance (even when compared to today's movies) and the performances. Some of the scenes remain imprinted on your mind forever. Everyone remembers the final scenes of the couple's horrible end on their wedding night (when I watched that a couple of days back, I could feel the lump in my throat**) and Kishen's subsequent revenge on Anna. But some other gems are the killing of Inspector Prakash at the famous Kabutar Khana and the subsequent killing of one his assailants Abdul (Suresh Oberoi) at that very spot. The other scene that I absolutely adored is the Jackie-Anil confrontation scene when Anil asks his elder brother about his activities. The reply given by Jackie ('Bas us din jo bhaaga to aaj tak bhaag raha hoon'.. and some other wonderful lines) touches you deep down somewhere. Also, bear in mind that throughout the movie there are no scenes of groups of people weilding AK-47s and killing each other by the dozen. Apart from the pivotal killings that are integral to the storyline, there is hardly any graphic violence in the film. But still, the power of the movie hits you hard. In fact, forget the violence, the movie has one of the finest music scores ever for a gangster movie. RD Burman gives us wonderful gems like 'Tumse Milke', 'Pyaar Ke Mod Pe' and 'Kitni Hai Pyaari Pyaari Dosti Hamari'. Truly remarkable music tracks for what is neither a love story or a musical !!!

Of course, what elevate Parinda to its height are the masterful performances. It would still rank as Jackie's finest performance (he received his only Filmfare award for this movie) and you have to see him in the scene mentioned above. Anil Kapoor was also amazing, conveying not just the vulnerability of a young man coming face-face with the turbulence his life undergoes in an instant, but also the ruthlessness of a man taking revenge of his friend's killing. While Madhuri was relegated to the backseat, she still managed to leave an impression, while of course looking a million bucks !!!. The movie also boasts of splending cameos, right from Anupam Kher and Suresh Oberoi all the way to Sameer Khakkar (more famous as the 'bevda' from Nukkad) as the one-legged Iqbal. And how I can forget Anna !!!.. It still beats me why Anna is not spoken of in the same breath as Gabbar and Mogambo when one considers the best of the anti-heroes of Indian cinema. In his first major role in Hindi cinema, Nana Patekar announced himself in no uncertain terms as a talent to reckon with. Inspite of his subsequent achievements, Nana and Anna are linked together not just as anagrams but as a gifted actor and his finest portryal.

Are you still reading this post ??? If so, drop it and get the DVD of this awesome movie on torrent right now (I got it from there..) !!! Download it and enjoy reliving the experience !!..

Cheers
Amit

** One of the nuance I missed earlier was that the last line spoken by Anil before the couple is massacred is: 'Siddarth.. (refering to his would-be kid's name)... woh is duniya main shaanti laayega'.. Dreams of a peaceful life in one instant, the elimination of life itself in the very next !!!!!...

More on the missed delivery by Fedex !!!!

Over the past week, have been browsing through blogosphere and have been heartened by some of the blogs put up by friends, acquantiances and others about the Australian Open final. More than the match itself, the presentation and Federer's tears seem to have struck a raw nerve somewhere. Felt good to know that apart from great writing talent that many of us have, Fedex has not lost one bit of his fan base. Some of the posts are:

1. Ketan Kulkarni has written a nice short piece (in Marathi too !!) about the tears, Read it here.

2. Kaumudi has written a moving letter to the champion herself !!. Get that here.

3. Read another piece here.

Would love to read more about a most extraordinary tennis match and its aftermath !!

Cheers
Amit

A match and rivalry to cherish........

This is my first post on tennis. This is a sport that I used to follow regularly as a kid. While in school, I used to regularly watch the Grand Slam finals on Doordarshan (no cable TV back then). I even used to stay up to watch the US Open finals at 1.30 am !!. Those were the days of guys like Lendl, Becker, Wilander, Agassi, Courier , Graf, Sabatini, and of course, my all-time favourite, the cool Swede Stefan Edberg. Then the Pete Sampras era began in the mid-90s, and as Edberg and his peers bid adieu, I lost interest in tennis. This was also about the age when the power players like Safin, Hewitt began to prosper, services started getting faster and the good ol' serve and volley game became an endangered species even at its native Wimbledon.

Then in 2003, Roger Federer came on the scene by winning Wimbledon, a title that he would not relinquish for five more years. With him, touch play was back in demand. As FedEx went about dominating world tennis, it seemed that the sport was once again going back to being a one-man show. Then from Spain came along Rafa and set about creating one of the greatest rivalries in tennis history.

Today's epic 4hr-23min, 5 setter between the two greats surely marks the zenith of the rivalry. Just about six months back, they gave us what many still call 'the greatest final in history' (another epic 5 setter at Wimbledon). I was unfortunate enough to miss that match, but if that was better than what I watched today, then I missed something really special then. But, coming back to today, the standard of tennis in the 3rd and 4th set was out of the world !!!!! (and it was really sad to see Federer falling apart in the decider). Incredible angles were constructed, lost points were won, balls that could hardly be reached by lesser mortals were converted to winners !!. And speaking of winners, we finally had the most deserving winner. Though I was rooting for Federer, I doff my hat off to the way Nadal plays. Those who dismiss him as a power player completely miss the point (of course, you do not win 6 Slams by just being a powerhouse). Nadal's greatest strength is his coverage and his ability to 'boldy go where no one has gone before' (in terms of court coverage). Its this ability that makes him so tough to beat. And Federer, even after playing as well as he could, finally succumbed to Nadal's resilience in the final set. To point out on observation (though I am no expert in tennis), Federer's best phase in the match came when he started coming to the net more often. He could probably have continued this in the last set, since you cannot sit on the baseline and beat Nadal in a slugfest from the back. And the tears at the post-match ceremony probably told a tale. It was as if Federer was acknowleding that as long as he keeps bumping into the same man of the other side, his dream of equalling and beating Sampras's record will remain just that. So someone else needs to do the job for Federer !!. As for Nadal, he is now well on his way in the journey from being just a clay-court specialist to an all-round performer. Another couple of years of this and he will be mentioned in the same breath as the former greats of the games !!!

Till then, let us remember this special match today and savour a classic tennis rivalry. Can these two gladiators treat us to something even more special ????? It would be worth miles to travel and worth a fortune to spend watching !!!

Cheers
Amit

The Li'l Champs finale is here !!!

After about four months of high-quality competition, the Marathi singing contest show Idea Sa Re Ga Ma approaches its grand finale. I have been an avid follower of this show (as an earlier post would indicate) and have been captivated by the level of performance on display. And now there are five contestants remaining, each one of whom has gone through many rounds and has consistently given his/her best. This week's episodes were especially wonderful, given that Republic Day was celebrated by invoking the best of patriotic numbers in Marathi. I, for one, cannot wait for the finale (and am irritated by Zee Marathi's delay in holding the mega finale !!).

Anyways, coming back to the finalists, in my opinion, the slight front-runners are Prathamesh Laghate from Sangameshwar near Ratnagiri and Pune's very own Aarya Ambekar. Both have been simply outstanding throughout most of the shows. Prathamesh has made classical and semi-devotional numbers his own, effortlessly crooning them in his own style. On the other hand, Aarya's cute smile and personality perfectly compliments her sweet voice, thus giving her that extra edge when it comes to soft romantic numbers. In fact, one of the highlights of the show has been that each of the finalists seems to have made a particular genre his/her own. Apart from these two, there is Rohit Raut who, with almost a rock-star personality, makes fast numbers even more rocking !! . And then there are the two little ladies, Mugdha Vaishampayan and Kartiki Gaikwad who seem to have left everyone else behind in the popularity charts. They will have the public support behind them (since SMSes sent by the public would have half the say in deciding the final winner).

Inspite of however wins the finals, I would forever remember this season of the show as one that bought me closer to the rich musical traditions of my mother tounge (which I admit I had never appreciated before). And once having got a taste of that, I hope to enrich it further. May the best participant win !!!

Cheers
Amit

PS: For those abroad who cannot watch the show, all the songs are avaliable for download on the Zee Marathi website: here . Recommended especially are 'Dayaghana' and 'Tya Phulaanchya Gandhkoshi' by Prathamesh, 'Malmali Tarunya Majhe' by Aarya. For non-Marathis, listen to 'Paan Khaye Saiya Hamaro' by Aarya (that I bet would have made Asha Bhosle proud) and 'Laga Chunari Main Daag' by Rohit !!! Although I admit, that the actual versions sound better the downloaded versions.

Things that I learnt yesterday...

Initially, I had planned to write my account of the Mumbai Marathon 2009 with the usual stuff : how did I get there, how did it start, the enthusiasm of the people, the color and sound that accompanied the event etc etc. But then I realised that not only would that description be similar to what you would normally read in the newspapers the next day, it would also be a virtual copy-paste of my earlier posts on the Marathon. So this time, I decided to focus on something else and share what I learnt about the marathon yesterday. For the record, though, I managed to complete the 21km Half marathon course in 3 hrs 09 min, three minutes more than last year. Given that my target this time was a sub-3 hour finish, the final time was a bit dissapointing. But then again, I was happy enough just to complete it given the unfavourable conditions (it was a more than a couple of degrees hotter this time, though that is not an excuse). And I would like to thank my old engg friend Srivatsa for responding to my request on Orkut and giving me the requisite documents so that I could participate in his name (given that I had missed the registration deadline this year).

Anyways, here is some quick gyaan that I got yesterday.

a. Marathons are all about competing against yourself: Hence, it is not a question of how many of your friends are participating, how ahead are they, what is going to be their time etc. In endurance tests such as these, you only compete against your own body and resistance. What should only matter is your own targets.

b. Having a running companion helps: Now this might sound contradictory to the point above, but having a partner (of roughly the same ability as yours) helps a lot, especially in the middle stages of the course. The two of you can alternatively go past each other and set the pace for the one following. In fact, there are professional pacemakers in such races whose job is to set the pace for the race leaders. For example, between kms 8-14 yesterday, I had my IIMB friend Ketan for company, which helped a lot. Being alone in the race is quite bad. And if you have nobody, you can always befriend a handsome/attractive co-participant ;-)

c. Performance on the treadmill is not the final indicator: If your treadmill is telling you that you are not upto the mark, do not take it too seriously (of course, do not completely ignore it either). My observation is that your performance on the actual track and day is much better than the best you can manage in the gym (provided of course, the weather is not unfavourable !!). Some possible reasons are of course: the mass of people around you that provides the adrenaline rush, the fact that on the road you can set yourself tangible targets e.g. 'I will run from Chowpatty to Wilson College', 'I will walk the next km briskly' etc etc. Running on the treadmill is monotonous and hence boring.

d. The heart carries the body in the last few kilometers: By the time you come to the final stages , your body has almost completely given up. Thereafter, its only the spirit that keeps you going. The sight of the finishing line pushes the body past its limit against all odds.

And finally, a reinforcement:

d. There is no city like my city !!!: The sheer number of people who lined the streets yesterday was overwhelming. Not only were there more people, their support and enthusiasm was exemplary. The so-called elite of Peddar Road and Marine Drive came down in their thousands on a Sunday morning, armed with water, trays of glucose biscuits and more than a word of encouragement. But for them, I guess many would not have crossed the finishing line. A friend of mine who ran a 10km race in Bangalore was saying that there was hardly anyone on the road there. Similar was the case in the recent Delhi half marathon. My city has once again made me proud !!!!..

So as I give myself a day's rest today to allow my feet to recover, here's looking forward to 2010 !!!!...

Cheers
Amit

My previous posts on the Marathon...

As D-day approaches tomorrow, here is a flashback to some of my previous posts on THE event of Mumbai...


Marathon - 2008
Marathon - 2007 (Part 1)
Marathon - 2007 (Part 2)

The next post in this series would be out soon !!!!...

Cheers
Amit

SATYA(m)NAASH !!!!!

India Inc.'s worst fears have come true and what a start it has been to 2009, that too on the back of a depressing 2008 !!. January 7, 2009 would be forever remembered in the annals of Indian corporate history as the day of shame not just for one man and his company, but indeed for corporate India in general. And this is not any fly-by-night company that has its image in tatters. Till about a few weeks back, Satyam was one of the poster boys of the Indian IT industry : Over $ 2 billion in revenues, NYSE listed, over 50000 employees and, ironically, a recent winner of the Golden Peacock award for, amongst all things, corporate governance !!! All that now virtually lies in ruins.

The Satyam employees now face a bleak future in an already bad job market. With most clients virtually certain to pull out of their contracts (and these include diverse names like the World Bank and FIFA) and new business obviously impossible, these employees face a difficult task to finding new jobs. They are amongst the first to pay a direct price for all the misdemeanours of the Satyam top brass. I for one find it impossible to believe that Mr. Raju was the only one doing all this, as he stated in his letter. No doubt the auditors and the board of directors have a lot of difficult questions to answer.

For the market, this could not have come at a worse time. The last few days had seen the market holding on important support levels (3000 on Nifty and 10K on Sensex) and in fact, was trying hard to move up. All that hard work is now undone in a couple of hours of mayhem. As the market trades today (Friday) the carnage continues. And while the Satyam investors obviously have been shattered, a lot of other investors are seeing their portfolios shrink more rapidly than the polar ice caps. Even government owned and well performing stocks are getting a beating (BHEL down more than 3%, SBI down 2% etc). Of course, the market is slaughtering those companies that are seen as not having a particularly high reputation on corporate governance. Clearly, the market expects some more skeletons to come out of the closet. Now that the tide is running out, the world will see who is swimming naked !!. On the other hand, well-reputed stocks like TCS and Infosys have actually gained since Wednesday (of course, partly because the market expects them to perform well now that one big player has fallen) . This hopefully is not just a knee-jerk reaction but a sign of things to come, wherein companies would need to have good standards of internal controls in place in order to provide a fair return to their shareholders.

And what of India Inc. ? Hopefully, there will be the proverbial silver lining in this dark cloud. New and tough measures of auditing and internal controls would be in place. Corporate Governance would not be restricted to just making grandiose statements in the annual reports. Appointment of independent directors and the role that they play would be subject to even greater scrutiny. And hopefully, the corporate world would be able to come out of this mess stronger and better and prove to the investors, public and the world at large that there will be no more instances of satya(m)naash !!!

Cheers
Amit

A Sunday well spent..

My recent Sundays have been as different as two McVeggies from your neighbourhood McD's. Unless I am attending a marriage or some such function, I usually have spent my Sundays doing the same things over and over again: wake up at leisure, skip the gym, take a shower at about noon, gorge myself on the sumptous lunch prepared by Anjali and mom. have my favourite afternoon siesta, then spend half the evening thinking where to go out to in the remaining half, come back for a relatively light dinner and then, of course, end the day cribbing about how the weekend has just sped past !!!. This, I guess, is the way most of us spend our Sundays. But for me, 2009 has started on a different note and I have spent its first Sunday in a different and highly satisfying way.

Yesterday, Anjali and me went to her mama's farmhouse near Karjat alongwith her mama and mami. I have never been to many farmhouses before so it was a new experience for me. We had to wake up at 5 am in order to go to Dadar and get the connecting local to Karjat. I had planned to counter this lack of sleep but catching up with it in the train to Karjat. But any such hope was quickly dashed as the train got packed at Dadar and we were thankful to get a good place to stand, let alone sit. And the train was full of groups of teenagers going to the various picnic spots near Karjat and of course, good ol Matheran. We reached Karjat at around 9 am and after a quick breakfast of vada-pao (possibly Karjat's only snack ;-) and tea, we took an auto to go the village nearest to the farmhouse which is around 10km from Karjat. The last half a mile or so was a good old fashioned walk through the village, the nearby fields and a stream with knee-high water.

After we settled ourselves in the farmhouse, her mama took us around for a tour of his farmhouse. And what followed was a hugely enlightening session in Botany. Now, Botany has never been my cup of tea. I am more interested in fauna (in fact, I was trying to spot any snake, lizard etc in the farm). Come to think of it. why does Discovery or National Geographic have hardly any plant-focussed shows ? Anyways, the bottom-line was that my knowledge, and hence appreciation, of various trees and their flowers n fruits increased by leaps and bounds (to the extent that I imagined myself doing full-time gardening/farming and quite liked the idea !!!). One of the discoveries that I made yesterday was that in some plants, there is also the concept of gender !!. After the tour and lesson was over, we took a quick tea break followed by a hands-on session in gardening. Right from gathering the fallen leaves on the ground, collecting and disposing them in the pit, cutting of old branches et al, we spent almost an hour literally getting our hands dirty. It reminded me of the social service camps that I used to go in school. After the clean up activity, it was time to water the different trees. Lunch happened thereafter, with a nearby village household serving us the most amazing home-like meal you can ever expect to have !!. And for once, my Sunday afternoon siesta was more because of exhaustion from the shram-daan rather than overeating.

As the afternoon sun began to move towards the horizon, we went on a quick tour of the adjacent surroundings before finally getting back to Karjat in time for the 6.24 pm train. Another three hours later and we were back home, having spent a Sunday unlike any other and one to remember for a long time !!!..

Cheers
Amit

A new beginning !!

As they say : 'Start as you mean to go !!'. Therefore, with the objective of having a more active blog this year, I begin by writing on the first morning of 2009 !!. And, as is mostly the case, I don't have anything particular to write about :-(. Therefore, I will just wish everyone a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year !!! As we leave behind what has definitely been a very difficult year, we look forward to this year with new hope and anticipation !!. May all your dreams and wishes be granted but more importantly, I pray to God to give everyone the strength and discipline needed to pursue their dreams to the fullest !!!!.

Now coming back to my blog, I have had a relatively quiet year. 26 posts in 2008 as compared to 34 in 2007. So this year, I hope to be more prolific in my writing, both in terms of quantity and (hopefully) quality as well. And hopefully write on a greater variety of topics, especially on lighter topics because I acknowledge that this is what my blog has been lacking so far. It has been mostly serious and contemporary stuff that I talk about. I wish 2009 would be different in that sense and, as I mentioned above, I pray to the Almighty for the ability (in terms of writing skill) and discipline (in terms of finding time regularly to blog) to fulfill both these wishes.

So once again wishing all readers and their near and dear ones a happy and prosperous new year !!!

Cheers
Amit

The media gets it back .. !!

Last night, the media got a taste of some of its own medicine !!.. The setting was the debate between Arun Jaitley and Kapil Sibal on CNN-IBN on the proposed anti-terror law tabled in Parliament. The debate was conducted by our man Rajdeep (who seems to be getting louder with every passing day !!). Before that, I had heard Arun Jaitley speaking on two seperate occassions (one of which was a couple of minutes on that same debate) and confirming that the BJP would support the new bill even though they felt that the bill was incomplete in some aspects (most notably, the clause that confession before the police would not be admissible as evidence). That clause apart, he had clearly mentioned that this party would go ahead and support the bill. But it seems our man Rajdeep is either hard of hearing or was conducting a debate without even listening to what the speakers were saying. So a couple of minutes later, he asks Arun something on the lines of : 'So because of this clause, you are not going to support this bill ??'. I mean, did he not hear him firmly saying that they will support the bill ?. To which Arun replied: 'Sorry to dissapoint you Rajdeep, I have already stated a couple of minutes back that the BJP is going to support this bill even in its incomplete format'. Now I am no great fan of Arun or any of the politicians, but I would have loved to see him add a few more lines of admonishment.

Sometimes, the media needs to be taken to task....

Amit

Media bashing, anyone ???

A friend of mine has put it very well in his Google Talk tagline : 'The media is busy indulging in politician bashing, but who will indulge in media bashing ??'. And today, in the DNA, people have spoken up against the media for their coverage of the 60 hours last week. Finally, people are waking to the quality of the coverage. For the Indian media, it was the first time that they were covering a semi-battle in almost their own backyard, so to speak. And they did manage to make a horibble mess out of it !!!!

Firstly, I would like to point out the fine distinction between 'news' and 'information'. As per me, news is something that people want to hear, while information is something that helps people in making decisions. Therefore, all information becomes news, but all news is not necessarily information. And in times of crises, what we expect from the media is information. But, throughout those 60 hours, what we got was an endless torrent of 'news' with hardly a fraction of it being really informative. In fact, some of it was counter-informative. First at the Nariman House on Friday and then at the Taj on Saturday, the media informed us that the operation was over (based on a few commandoes coming out of the buildings with a V-sign), only to be later told by the NSG that the operation was far from being complete. And in all those 60 hours, not even once did I see or hear any channel asking people not to come near the battleground. As if there was some filmy shooting going on !!!.

Then there are the usual sought-after sound bytes from relatives of the dead/injured. And on this, the relatively better-off NDTV took the cake (and that too because I did not bother seeing the others , especially the Hindi channels). On Friday evening, it 'interviewed' one of the relatives of the dead/hostages. After answering a couple of questions, the relative suddenly went quite and was on the verge of breaking down. At this, the news anchor nonchalantly said: "I'm sorry, we seemed to have disturbed you". How disgusting ??? I absolutely do not see any point in having the grieving relatives and family appear on national television, only to be asked: "aap ko kaisa lag raha hai ??" How I wish that one of the relatives actually bars the media from entering his/her house, just the same way that Major Unnikrishan's father barred the Kerala CM. And most of the media journalists covering the event need urgent lessons in voice modulation. For example, on Sunday (a full day after the saga was over), a Star News reporter went to the police HQ to interview the cops who had slain the terrorists who killed Karkare, Salaskar et al. While the cops were answering in a quiet and restrained manner, our good reporter friend was screaming at the top of his voice. almost as if he was seeing another encounter in front of his eyes.

And then post the attacks, there is the favourite media occupation of making mountains of molehills. I mean, does it really matter who accompanies the CM to the Taj ??? Is Mr. Ram Gopal Varma persona non-grata ??? Then, why the big deal about the whole thing ??. The media needs to grow up and hopefully after this incident, even they will introspect and be better off for it.

Cheers
Amit